Impacts

The Tribal Solar Accelerator Fund concept and program scope was developed to provide new, independent funding to tribes for renewable energy projects. The TSAF mission is to catalyze solar energy and expand solar job opportunities in tribal communities across the United States. The vision is for Indian Country to transition to energy sovereignty that is educational, entrepreneurial, and completely renewable.

2019-2020 Project Map

Highlights

The fourteen 2019-2020 (July 2019 – June 2020) TSAF grantees are in four states; California, New Mexico, South Dakota, and North Dakota where the energy generation potential ranges between 1GW to 500,000GW according to the 2018 Techno-Economic Renewable Energy Potential on Tribal Lands report (2018, NREL).

The 2019 grant award totals across 14 grantees is $1,583,181, which supported 338kW of solar PV, and contributing to a total of 434kW for tribes that received a large Department of Energy Matching Funds grant.

The approximate lifetime savings which includes the three large DOE matching funds projects is almost $3,000,000.

All grantees included a training and workforce development component to their projects to contribute to their tribal community’s economic development needs, which totals up to 60 tribal members receiving 60-300 hours of training.

Two grantees are creating an educational curriculum for K-16 students.

The Tribal Solar Accelerator Fund is supported by Wells Fargo. GRID welcomes additional contributions to the fund. Contact us for more information.